


won't be gone long

by alexdxnvers



Category: Supergirl (TV 2015)
Genre: F/F, SuperCorp, maybe a little angsty but it has it's cute moments
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-01-19
Updated: 2017-01-19
Packaged: 2018-09-18 13:01:53
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,084
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9386420
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/alexdxnvers/pseuds/alexdxnvers
Summary: "Kara smiles. Kara promises to call whenever she has a free moment. Kara picks up her suitcase, walks towards the security checkpoint, runs back for one last kiss that almost knocks Lena off her feet, and then she’s gone.Lena lets her smile linger all the way back to her car, but when she finally gets back to L-Corp, back to her big office that’s suddenly devoid of the happy Christmas jingles that Kara had been playing before the call from CatCo came in, the walls come slamming back up."In which Kara and Lena's Christmas plans get thrown out the window because of work, and now Lena has to handle the holiday season on her own.





	

Kara and Lena don’t get to spend their first Christmas together actually _together._

Kara’s apologetic and worried and swearing vengeance on Snapper for this assignment, even as she whirls about her apartment in a hurry as she tries to pack. She doesn’t notice how she’s going a bit too fast, and Lena pretends to look the other way as Alex shoots Kara a warning look, because _really_ , she isn’t stupid. 

“Breathe, Kara,” Alex advises when Kara almost tosses a pair of shoes straight through the wall (Lena’s busy _examining_ old family photos). “It’s just two weeks, you can stop tearing apart your bedroom.”

“I don’t see why he had to choose _me_ for this,” Kara whines, slumping down onto her bed and looking close to tears. “It’s Christmas.”

Lena spends the next few hours coaxing Kara down, reassuring her that it’s completely fine that she’s going to be gone for Christmas, “ _really, Kara, I run a business, I understand that these trips can be out of nowhere and that there’s nothing you can do”._ She keeps her hand firmly wrapped around Kara’s the entire ride to the airport, ignoring how Kara’s holding on a bit too tightly.

“Call me when you land,” Lena makes her promise. “And don’t worry about me, Kara. Really. Enjoy the conference, write your articles, have a good Christmas with your cousin and his girlfriend. You won’t be gone long.”

“But we were supposed to spend Christmas _together_.”

“Clark and Lois will take good care of you,” Lena says, smiling, because sometimes dating Kara feels like she’s suddenly been put in charge of a small child, but also because Kara has to see that it’s _okay_ for her to be gone.

So Kara smiles. Kara promises to call whenever she has a free moment. Kara picks up her suitcase, walks towards the security checkpoint, runs back for one last kiss that almost knocks Lena off her feet, and then she’s gone, off to her plane to Metropolis - assuming that she doesn’t duck out a door somewhere and just fly herself.

Lena lets her smile linger all the way back to her car, but when she finally gets back to L-Corp, back to her big office that’s suddenly devoid of the happy Christmas jingles that Kara had been playing before the call from CatCo came in, the walls come slamming back up.

Because as much as she’d tried to reassure Kara that she’d be fine, all Lena knows it that she’s alone again. Alone, and missing her girlfriend, and wishing that she’d had the strength to be _selfish_ for once and beg Kara to stay with her. She wants cuddles by the fireplace in her loft and presents on Christmas morning and the Christmas dinner that they’d had planned with Alex and Winn and Maggie and James and all the friends, and huddling up together on the couch until they fall asleep. She wants Kara back, and she’s barely been gone for an hour.

Lena pours herself a glass of wine, then throws herself into her paperwork for the rest of the day. Quick, efficient, going through the piles of forms and reports and junk on her desk, and then taking Jess’s workload off her and sending her assistant home early. 

It’s been dark for a long time when Lena finally rises from her desk. Out of habit, she glances out at the balcony, her heart somehow breaking even more as she carelessly tosses her cellphone and a few folders into her bag.

It’s on her way out that Lena finally notices something on the couch, wedged between two cushions. She pauses, leans over, and pulls out a familiar red-and-blue scarf (because honestly, Kara Danvers wouldn’t know the meaning on the word subtle if it hit her in the face). Kara had been wearing it that afternoon when she fell asleep while watching Lena work, and must have left it when they’d rushed off to Kara’s apartment to quickly get packed.

And Lena, not really thinking about what she’s doing, gently folds it and slips it into her bag, temporarily comforted by the smell of candy canes left from Kara’s last snack fest as she finally heads home.

* * *

 “ _Winn told me you missed pool last night.”_

 _“_ I wasn’t aware that Schott’s keeping tabs on me.”

“ _Lena.”_

 _“_ What?”

“ _Tell me you haven’t been spending all this time working instead of enjoying the holiday season.”_

 _“_ As you no doubt are. How’s Clark and Lois? Any big plans for the big day, or will duty be calling for you and Kent?”

“ _Lena, I know that you’re changing the subject.”_

 _“_ Fine, maybe I am. But look at it this way: if I’d gone, Alex would have just kicked my ass in pool, and that’s Maggie’s position to fill, not mine.”

“ _… I’d argue, but you’re not wrong”_

 _“_ I know I’m not, babe.”

“ _Gotta head back in in a minute. Miss you.”_

“I miss you too.”

“ _I’ll call again in a few hours, okay? I love you so much, Lena.“_

 _“_ Yeah. Yeah, I know.”

* * *

 When Lena wakes up on Christmas morning, it’s to another voicemail notification going off on her phone. In the span of twenty minutes, Kara’s managed to leave a grand total of thirty-seven messages in her inbox, all of them probably endearingly loud and cheerful even at such a god-forsaken time in the morning.

Lena leaves her bedroom, needing at least one cup of coffee before she calls her girlfriend back, and pauses in the doorway, taking in her living room, and the large Christmas tree in the corner (which Lena had fought, but “ _Lena, your place is in way more need of some festive decorations than mine, pleassssseee let’s have the Christmas tree at yours”,_ and Lena hasn’t yet learned how to say no to a Danvers pout). They never got the chance to finish decorating it, and Lena hadn’t made any effort on her own, so the boxes of Kara’s decorations still lay abandoned on the small carpet of pine needles.

When they’d first hauled the thing into Lena’s space, she’d taken a moment to step back and picture what it would be like to actually have a nice Christmas with someone she loved. Lena had pictured the presents under the tree and all the lights and ornaments and just being able to use anything as an excuse to hold Kara for most of the day, but the presents she’d bought are still in the back of her closet, and the tree’s sad and empty and dark, and there’s a distinct lack of Kara in the room.

Lena foregoes the coffee, turns around, shuts her phone off, and goes straight back to bed, fighting hard to hold back the sudden tears.

Alex Danvers calls several times that afternoon, after Lena’s finally gotten up. Whatever she has to say, Lena ignores it, declining all her calls. She’s sure that’s not going to win her any favors with the elder Danvers, and neither will blowing off Christmas dinner.

It’s Winn and James and Alex and Maggie and Mon-El and J’onn, and Eliza might be making an appearance, and Lena can’t bring herself to go. Yes, by right, they’re her friends too, as they’ve all stressed _so many times_ , but it doesn’t feel right to be with them without Kara there. It still seems strange to think that they’d all accept her on her own, when Kara’s not hovering around her, and she’s not quite willing to face that potential rejection today.

She settles instead for reruns of old Christmas movies, some potstickers that Kara had left in her fridge, and studiously keeping her line of sight away from the lonely Christmas tree sitting abandoned in her living room.

* * *

 

“ _I’ll see you in a few days, Lena, and then we can have our own little Christmas thing, I promise.”_

 _“_ Looking forward to it, Danvers.”

* * *

It’s awfully cold, even for the first week of January. Lena’s spent the past few winters in Metropolis, and National City is definitely the one with the worst weather this time of year.

Lena wonders, briefly, whether Kara’s dressing warm and staying safe in Metropolis, but then she remembers that the cold will probably barely make a difference to her.

She doesn’t intend to do it, but one morning Lena accidentally grabs Kara’s scarf on her way out, wrapping it quickly around her neck and walking halfway up to her office before she realizes.

Lena wears it home.

She wears it to quickly pop down to the closest bookstore for an hour or so.

And then she wears it to work again the next day.

If she can’t have cuddles from her girlfriend, Lena will settle for this.

* * *

 “ _Snapper’s guy for the last few days of the conference just went down with pneumonia, Lena. I have to stay just a while longer.”_

 _“_ So you won’t be back tomorrow night?”

“ _I don’t know. Probably not.”_

 _“_ When will you be back?”

“ _I don’t know, whenever he gets someone else to come out, or I guess whenever this wraps up. I’m so sorry, Lena, I know I promised-”_

 _“_ It’s fine, Kara, it’s work.”

“... _I can come back this Sunday for a few hours and see you. I miss you.”_

“Kara, it’s fine. Really. Enjoy the rest of the conference.”

* * *

When Lena gets back from a lunch meeting that had run far longer than she would have liked, there’s a package sitting on her desk.

Lena pauses by the door, eyes it warily. Alex and the DEO and Supergirl have promised over and over that it looks like Lex has settled down, taken her off his imminent hit list now that it’s been made obvious that she’s far from an easy target. Still, years of always waiting for that next move to come out of nowhere has made Lena cautious. It’s no secret that Supergirl hasn’t been flying around National City for over a week, leaving the NCPD and the DEO to handle the crime-fighting in her absence (though Lena has no doubt that Kara would immediately come flying back the second she’s really needed). 

But, as she gets closer to her desk and can get a better look at the package, Lena realizes that it doesn’t really look much like a suspicious package... but a hell of a lot like someone who barely knew how to wrap a present had rushed through putting it together... with what had to be about a solid mile of glittery washi tape.

“Oh, Kara,” Lena says under her breath, unable to hide the smile that’s spreading across her face. She wonders if Kara had left it here, or mailed it to Jess, but then she decides that she doesn’t care and just enjoy the moment.

Working through the shitty wrapping is a task and a half, and Lena lets out a quiet laugh when she finally has the present in her hands. Kara’s managed to find literally the _worst_ ugly Christmas sweater with Supergirl and Superman’s family crest on it. If it had come from anyone else, Lena would have shoved it in the bottom of a drawer and forgotten about it, but she’s already shrugging off her jacket and slipping the sweater over her head.

It’s way too big for Lena, the ends of the sleeves extending way past the tips of Lena’s fingers. She doesn’t care, though, because it’s warm and cozy and so very Kara. Lena tugs the sleeves up as she sits at her desk, opening her laptop to review her meeting notes.

Lena falls asleep in it, eventually, because it’s comfortable and the couch is too soft and welcoming when she stays late at the office, the few papers in her hand slipping from her grasp and sliding across the floor.

So Lena doesn’t hear Jess come in to wish her good night before she leaves, misses how her assistant tosses the blanket on the back of the couch over Lena before retreating.

Lena doesn’t hear the balcony door sliding open and then shut, gentle footsteps crossing the room.

What Lena is distantly aware of are gentle arms lifting her slightly into a more comfortable position, a warm body sliding in besides her, and tugging her close. She’s just awake enough to feel Kara brush a gentle kiss against her forehead, and Lena burrows into Kara’s chest, feeling the arms tighten ever so slightly around her, and smiling as she slips back into sleep, because finally, everything’s just the way it should be.

**Author's Note:**

> Hello! I hope you enjoyed reading this, even though I literally don't know where it came from or why I wrote it now, since Christmas was weeks ago. But this was fun to do and so hopefully now I've worked the holidays out of my system and can return to other things.
> 
> If you liked this and want to send in requests or prompts for anything, feel free to swing by my tumblr at alexdxnverss and leave an ask, because I'm always up for taking requests (and I'll write like almost anything Supergirl and Doctor Who, and some Orphan Black, and probably small bits from various other fandoms so idk, ask and you shall recieve?). But thanks for reading!! :):)


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